‘Say.’ I asked, ‘What should I say?’ He said, ‘Say: O Allah, I ask You to help me do good deeds and abandon evil deeds. If You intend a trial for a people while I am among them, take me to Yourself without my being put to trial.’”

Judge Abū Ya‘lā cited this hadith in his book Ibtāl al-Ta’wīl (Refuting Reinterpretation), placing it first among the hadiths of this kind concerning the Prophet’s seeing Him in the most beautiful form. He affirmed that this occurred while the Prophet was awake and discussed it as he discussed the other reports, rejecting reinterpretation. For those who resort to reinterpretation—such as al-Marīsī and his followers, and Ibn Fūrak and others like him—regard this as having occurred while awake and reinterpret it, just as